Cup Runneth Over

Late last week, Gov. Bill Richardson’s office announced the winners of the 2008 Governor’s Cup Short Animation Competition. The two winners will each receive $10,000 toward their short animated projects, which will be produced in New Mexico this summer. We here at the Alibi couldn’t be prouder of this, as one of the winners turned out to be ultra-talented Alibi Graphic Designer Jeff Drew. Drew is already an award-winning animator (he nabbed a win in the Alibi Short Film Fiesta before he even worked here), and we can’t wait to see his new Governor’s Cup project, a cut-and-paste collaboration with Albuquerque’s own Pajama Men (Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez) titled “One Square Mile of Earth.” The other winner was Los Alamos animator Fredrick Aragon, whose short will be “Coyote Tales: Mystery’s Night.” Prizes for the competition were provided by Pangea Pictures and the National Geographic All Roads Film Project. The winners were chosen by a five-member selection panel.

This one time, at band camp, I learned how to bring the noise

By Marisa Demarco

It's a nearly clichéd statement: Girls rock. But a documentary of the same chantable, anthemic title brings us to new territory: Little girls rock, too—with full-sized instruments, piercing shrieks and loud-as-you-please amps.

Animated martial arts fable kicks it up a notch

By Devin D. O’Leary

Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks’ new family cartoon, begins with a traditional 2-D animated sequence of unparalleled style. In an angular, ink-heavy fashion, mixing ancient Chinese scrollwork and modern Japanese anime, we see our hero, a tubby Panda named Po (voiced by Jack Black), kung fu his way through an army of enemies. Alas, it’s all just a dream, as we soon cut back to “reality” and the three-dimensional CGI animation that has been the industry standard since Toy Story swept through the cinemas.

“Comic Books Unbound” on Starz

By Devin D. O’Leary

The summer of 2008 will probably go down as the most comic book-saturated in movie history. With films like Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, Hellboy 2 and The Dark Knight poised to dominate the box office, it’s clear Hollywood has gone full-tilt gaga over the comic book industry. Just in time, Starz peels back the cover on “Comic Books Unbound,” another one of the network’s movie genre documentaries--this one, a glossy airline magazine investigation into the world of comic books, movies and comic book movies.